Heat-recovery ideas for solar reactors existed as theories “but not to actually go to the lab, build a device and try to make it work.”
Heat-recovery for a solar reactor is tested at ETH Zürich
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CSP News & Analysis
Oxygen fix for high-temperature molten-salt degradation (and corrosion) at 620°C
The molten salt mixture deployed in today’s commercial CSP plants for thermal energy storage is liquid at 565°C and degrades at higher temperatures. Yet higher temperatures would increase thermal efficiency. So how can we develop a molten salt mix that can reach...
Cascaded thermocline storage with metal wool gets test: HYBRIDplus
Three years ago, Abengoa thermal energy storage engineer Cristina Prieto exchanged the relatively secretive world of commercial CSP for academia. Now, as the professor for a newly created thermal energy storage discipline at the School of Engineering at the University...
Vast Solar’s fix for tank leaks that stymied the first Tower CSP
Tower CSP thermal storage initially had a tank leak problem. Vast Solar says they have the solution
Add nickel to ceria for solar syngas at just 700°C
Adding nickel to ceria can yield solar syngas at lower temperatures - at just 700°C Solar thermochemistry researchers at the University of Florida and Synhelion tried a new way to generate syngas, the precursor to hydrocarbon fuels like jet fuel or diesel. Solar...
Water-cooled window for hot solar receivers over 1500°C
Goal: ensure the quartz window never exceeds 300°C, despite solar receiver temperatures above 1500°C – keeping thermal efficiency over 50%
Successful PROMES-CNRS thermocline test of latent/sensible heat storage
A solar thermal energy storage breakthrough – single tank thermal energy storage avoiding thermocline thickening has been tested successfully
Are there still careers in solar energy innovation?
Tower CSP needs talented engineers in optics, robotics and AI to advance heliostat technology and cut costs.
Fraunhofer finds hybrid PV-CSP in Chile beats gas LCOE
Hybrid PV-CSP in Chile A new study from energy engineering consultancy Fraunhofer - for Chile compares the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) of hybrid solar with gas. Comparison between Concentrated Solar Power and Gas-Based Generation in Terms of Economic and...
Solar energy record: Mongolian CSP generated round the clock
Solar energy record - 12 days, 24 hours a day In a solar energy record for round-the-clock power generation, Mongolia's Wulate 100MW trough CSP project ran continuously for 12 days, generating pure solar energy without batteries; due to the thermal energy storage in...
SolarSteam wins recognition for Canadian climate tech
SolarSteam was recently picked by Foresight Canada as one of the country’s most investable clean tech companies. The start-up uses concentrating solar thermal to produce hot water and steam for use by industrial and institutional clients that need to meet an initial...
Consortium to demonstrate nitrogen for fertilizer from biosolids using solar thermal
Next year Solar Dynamics will demo a pilot project with solar thermal energy to dry biosolids to extract nitrogen to make fertilizer pellets
Innovation in its volumetric absorber takes OVR efficiency to 90%
With innovation in its core component – the volumetric absorber – the Open Volumetric Receiver (OVR) can reach 90% efficiency and beyond
Sodium heat transfer to Magnesia gets storage test
Liquid sodium heat transfer with magnesia thermal storage is ideally suited to high-temperature energy needs in industrial processes
Denmark’s solar district heat leadership due to great policies
In Denmark, financing green district heat was not left to the whims of the market.
DLR finds CST is the Goldilocks renewable to decarbonize German industry
An assessment of the cost/benefit of each green heat technology is timely, as countries that were most heavily dependent on Russian gas must rapidly decarbonize heavy industry as gas supplies dwindle from over 40% to under 10% and rise in price from 20 to 140 euros...
China’s 2050 power could be Zero Carbon for under 1% of GDP: study
The average annual additional costs are ~0.62% of China’s GDP in 2020.
At SolarPACES 2022, Heliogen talks up solar heat efficiency for mines
“Our heliostat software works like human bodies work. We have eyes and eyes allow us to put our fingers in a very exact place with feedback.”
The business case for storing energy thermally in former coal plants
Compared to other energy storage technologies, thermal energy storage has a huge advantage. It can be dropped-in to repurpose existing coal power plants by simply replacing the fuel, coal, with thermal energy storage to be charged with excess renewable energy...
BA student devises algorithm to optimize Tower CSP preheating strategy
Much of the research covered at SolarPACES in concentrated solar power (CSP) is advanced by international post-docs and professors, but as the need for climate solutions advances, it is drawing the attention of younger researchers with STEM backgrounds in mathematics,...
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CSP News & Analysis
- Solar vacuum pyrolysis leverages the lunar vacuum to mine oxygen
- PSA advances a solar reactor to extract oxygen from lunar ilmenite
- Solar steam from Glasspoint to decarbonize a California mine
- Startup concentrates solar to melt NASA’s lunar landing pads
- How rotating the solar receiver could cut Trough CSP land use
- New star-shaped solar receiver cuts costs and prolongs tower CSP life
- 3D-printed ceramics tested to maximize thermal energy storage in molten salts
- ARPA-E-winning thermal energy storage in sand wins commercial interest
- Sandia’s Gen-3 particle-based CSP demo to debut this fall
- Optimizing the safety factor in high temperature solar absorbers
- Finding an ideal channel geometry inside compact flow gas receivers
- New neural network tool speeds up O&M for Trough CSP
- Vast Energy advances world’s-first solar-powered green methanol demo
- New AI perfects heliostat aim to boost solar tower power
- Solar hydrogen from sulphuric acid recycling to get an industry trial
- A new trigeneration study builds on recaptured waste heat
- Two ways water derailed PG&E’s Ivanpah CSP contract
- Future atmospheric attenuation impacts on central solar tower plants
- Solar syngas produced at moderate temperatures to speed market adoption
- A novel perovskite mix could improve solar fuels yield
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